One Gleek's journey of opening herself up to joy (and some ranting)

Why I Love Glee

And I am not ashamed of this fact either (most Gleeks during season 3 have started to become ashamed but I didn’t).

I am English major and a Communications minor at University of College USA.

And last year I came up with the idea to rewatch the entire series of glee presented and interpret it in context of the current season. Or at least look for common threads.

But mainly I wanted to figure out my love for the show or what exactly glee is.

However, I had to figure out how to do that out.

The idea was for me to watch all the episodes of glee out there and record my observations with canon as I understood it to be.

However, season three left me in a rage blackout and again life and college got in the way of this pursuit.

But the idea still stayed with me. A tackle of glee retrospectively as someone who is a fan of the show despite its many, many shortcomings.

However maybe…maybe I just needed to see the characters graduate, to have a look at the show as the first generation of those New Directions kids stepped down and out into the real world.

Five episodes in season four, I think I’m ready to tackle this show again in a different way.

Glee is no longer the cultural phenomenon it once was.

…You know I think that it is better than it isn’t.

Lost had the same problem glee had its phenom days, it tried please everyone and in the end it pleased no one. It just became this huge, big convoluted mess that still confuses people to this day.

Maybe one day glee will experience a resurgence of massive proportions or of a proportion. But the show, currently in its fourth season, is finally starting to get good again and I speak as one who has survived a viewing of the third season of the show (and we’ll get to that later).

Glee is not just a show that you can expect something consistent every time. Glee is…is like being a teenager.

Stick with me here because I’ve thought about this a lot over the years.

Glee isn’t a show about coherency or plot or the logistics of the real world or even consistency. Glee is a tonal experience. The show is those feelings of being young, of being a teenager, of being…anything.

The reason many people get frustrated with glee is because glee isn’t living up to its true potential.

Isn’t that what most people say about kids? “You’re not living up to your true potential!”

Glee is that frustrating kid who you know can be better, who you sincerely WANT to be better but in the end doesn’t quite live up to your expectations. But in its essence, this is a show about never quite getting there.

It’s loud and chaotic and messy and everything feels like the end of the world. Most of the time you want to strangle the characters or reach through the T.V. to smack sense into them. There’s music and drama and bullying and sudden hits of realness that you wonder if the show can handle that.

Glee in its tone…is a teenager!

It makes you cringe and wonder what the hell people were thinking. It sweeps you up for the characters, for the tone, and because if something doesn’t happen right this minute it feels like the world is about to end. Kids watch it because they can relate to these big, dramatic moments when it feels like these huge sweeping gestures. Grown-ups watch it because it reminds them of those teenage years when it feels like the world is about to end.

You face those uncomfortable, awkward milestones. You have those teachers that are idealistic or the worst person you’ll ever meet. Maybe you don’t get a physical slushie in the face but you do get that cold, harsh feeling of being bitch slapped by an iceberg in life.

Glee is the antithesis of a show like The Wonder Years, which felt real but also idealized. Glee is anything but an idealization of the teenage years because those years are never ideal. High school is never a good time, otherwise why would we have college?

This is how I reconciled most of my less than charitable feelings toward probably my favorite show on TV. I am not ashamed to admit it. I wouldn’t have come back to this blog if this was something less than a labor of love.

The importance of glee is that in its essence it captures those teenage years: uncomfortable awkwardness, soaring highs, crushing lows, and every mixed up over the top teenage emotion in between. It’s big and small. It’s…that moment in life where everything simultaneously comes undone and back together again.

This is why I love glee and this is my purpose for this blog. A look back and also a look forward because like those teenage years: you need both your past and future to figure out the present.